The dolphins were attracted by the fish caught in the nets but needed help in making their escape

The ANSE naturalists association report that three bottlenose dolphins have had to be freed from the traditional almadraba fishing nets in La Azohía, after they attempted to make the most of the fish trapped inside the net and then failed to make good their escape as the net closed around them.

The fishermen duly made sure that the animals, a female, a male and a youngster, came to no harm, and that they were able to swim back out to sea to join three or four of their companions who had succeeded in escaping through their own efforts.

Although the almadraba fishing technique has existed for millennia, in a typical year over 100 tons of fish are still caught in the nets used off the coastline of Cartagena, and La Azohía is one of the last outposts where the almadraba is believed to have been introduced by the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians and the Greeks is still used. Among the species featuring in a typical catch are Bluefin tuna, bonito and frigate tuna, and at the Almadraba dock and jetty in La Azohía there are twenty people working for six months of the year.

In the mid-19th century almadraba fishing was still relatively common and existed in many places along the Mediterranean coast from Cádiz in the south-west to Girona in the north-east of Spain. Now, however, it is almost extinct.

The first documented references to the almadraba technique are to be found in the writings of Aristotle, Pliny and Strabo, and we know that it is derived from a Greek word which meant “park of water”. This is because it consists of encircling the fish in an enclosure of nets before tightening them around the catch, a process which is sometimes used to drag the fish-filled nets onto the shore.

Photographs were taken of the dolphins released recently, and ANSE will now study the images to see whether the markings on the dorsal fins correspond to specimens which have been seen in the Costa Cálida in the past.